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I was not expecting to win a SC and then just run it back the next week.

On Saturday 7th March I attended a 29 person Store Championship at Waylands Forge, my friendly local gaming store. Given that I’d already won a SC in Leamington Spa the week before, I attended this tournament hoping to hang out with friends and have a good time. Steve (the TO) has run every tournament I’ve played in other than the other SCs I’d been to this season, so I knew that I could expect a well-run tournament with a good atmosphere. Sets Legal: Up To and including: Order and Chaos

Decklists:

Reg Ass MaxX (Not Hungry)

(45 cards)

Event (15)2 3 2 1 **1 ***1 **1 1 3

Hardware (5)3 ******2

Resource (10)3 3 2 2

Icebreaker (6)2 2 1 1 **

Program (9)1 2 2 1 3

Built with

Near Earth Friendship:

(49 cards)

Agenda (11)3 2 3 3

Asset (8)2 3 3

Upgrade (5)2 **3

Operation (10)2 ********2 3 3

Barrier (5)2 3

Code Gate (6)3 3

Sentry (4)3 ******1 *

Built with

About the decks:

Runner:

Had I been gunning for a victory at this event I’d have had a real dilemma about what to run. I’ve been having success with an aggressive Desperado Valencia deck, standard NoiseShop with I’ve Had Worse instead of Earthrise Hotel and the more standard MaxX deck with Account Siphon and Eater Keyhole. Ultimately I decided to just play the deck that appealed to me the most, and that was Dan D’Argenio’s standard breaker suite MaxX deck (an article about which can be found here: http://stimhack.com/going-against-the-g ... -ass-maxx/). The deck looked fun as hell and I’ve been a fan of Datasucker+Standard Anarch Breaker Suite since I started playing the game. MaxX’s ability is insane and there’s enough recursion in the list to really allow it to shine. This deck also has a ton of play to it and makes for really fun games. I didn’t edit Dan’s list at all because I only tested it for about a week and fortunately none of the cards were terrible for me throughout the day. I’d recommend this for a tournament if anyone isn’t sure what to run.

Corp: I did actually consider taking the HB Glacier deck I’d been messing around with on OTCGN in the run up to this event, but ultimately decided to take NEH instead. I’m just not the kind of person to make a suboptimal deck choice, and I had no doubt that I’d be giving my opponents free wins if I took glacier instead of FA. Besides given that this tournament was on home turf I really wanted to bring the heat. This list is a variation on the list I’d taken to previous SCs, with Crisium Grid replacing Shipment from SanSan as a good counter to Eater Keyhole strategies that also does work against Criminals generally and the Shapers that pack a lot of run events. I’m still unsure about this choice: Crisium was good for me throughout the day, but I’m not sure if it was better than Shipment from SanSan would have been. This deck is so called because Andrew ‘Xenasis’ Hynes and I sent this list back and forth a made a lot of edits, so it can be considered something of a team effort.

The tournament:

It was nice to attend a tournament that didn’t require a proper early morning, given the venue is only about half an hour away from my house. With my decklists printed out and my decks already assembled I sat and relaxed whilst the usual hectic rush of filling out lists and asking for cards took place around me. There were 29 people there which meant that we played 5 rounds of Swiss.

Andrew and I have played against each other more than we’ve played against anyone else on the planet, and at this point we’re so evenly matched that we have no idea what the result is going to be when we sit down to play at a tournament. Neither of us would have been surprised to lose both games here.

I start off corping and from the beginning I know that I have to be wary of his deck (a list and discussion of it can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=638.). I can’t just try to play NEH solitaire and end the game before he can get a bunch of accesses because he’ll combo off and score 7 points before I do if I take that approach. Instead I intend to further my game plan whilst also looking for opportunities to disrupt his. I run out an early Breaking News with the intention of scoring it next turn and trashing his Personal Workshop, but he calls me on it and steals it. Later on in the game however I’m able to fast advance out the Breaking News on a SanSan City Grid and trash his workshop with my last click, essentially stopping him from being able to combo. As a last ditch attempt he loads some Incubator counters onto a Medium and Stimhacks R&D, but I rez the Quandry that keeps him out. The game ends in short order after that.

The tricks that you can do with this card are insane

My MaxX deck actually has a pretty good NEH matchup between the Anarch breaker suite and Medium so I’m pretty confident going into this game. It gets off to a good start when Andrew accidently drops a Project Beale from his hand onto the table. We talk about it a little and he tells me that he has no problem with me using this information to my advantage (I’d be the same if I was in his shoes) and so I run his hand a few times hoping to score it. He installs a card behind a Quandry which I assume is the Beale, and I install one of my Decoders and grab it. He never gets good tempo going and so I set up a Medium deep dig and score up to seven points. Andrew is almost certainly one of the most accomplished players in the room and so I feel really good about getting two wins here.

Round 2: Dan Baxendale with NEH and Siphon MaxX

I choose to corp first and it soon becomes clear that Dan is on the Eater Keyhole build of MaxX, with Siphons and Retrieval Runs as powerful tools. He’s able to get off a good Siphon early with an installed Eater, and this really slows me down. I’m able to stabilise and start scoring points, but I can’t close it out before he sets up a Keyhole lock and starts wrecking R&D, trashing the 4 points he needs to win the game. I ICE up Archives and start drawing in the hope of hitting one of my 2 remaining Jackson Howards, but I have no luck and he’s able to Déjà vu for a Hades Shard after shuffling his heap back into his deck with a LARLA. Afterwards he points out my mistake that game was not trashing his Same Old Thing at any point, as doing so would have stopped him from using the LARLA and getting all of his cards back. The lesson here is to bear in mind how much recursion the MaxX deck is likely to have left and play accordingly.

I hope that you enjoy shuffling your deck and losing the game

It’s now my turn to run and I’m hoping that I can beat Dan in the same way that I just beat Andrew. I gave him the decklist he’s using and so I know exactly what to expect from his deck. I don’t remember this game being particularly eventful – I’m able to pressure him enough that he can’t just Astrotrain for the win in short order, and I’m able to set up a Medium and a breaker suite to take it home. I seem to end up at 3-1 at the end of round 2 at every tournament I ever play at.

Round 3: Neil G with NEH Constellation and Angel of the Inca Cross

I corp first again this round, and like Andrew Neil is running an Anarch combo deck for this tournament. (List and discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=637) I have to go fast because I know that once his combo is off I’m just locked out of the game. Here I decided that because his combo would be a little slower to set up I could afford to just concentrate on scoring points, and I managed to do just that off the back of an early SanSan City Grid and an Astroscript. He was having some trouble setting everything up and so couldn’t spare the time to also hit my econ and my SanSans, so I was able to put it out of reach the turn before an active Chakana hit the table. I installed an NAPD on a SanSan, advanced it and took off an Astrocounter for what I thought was the win. Neil pointed out that NAPD requires an extra advance vs Valencia, but I showed him the Biotic Labour and the credits to play it, ending the game.

We then swap and have one of the most memorable games of Netrunner of the day. It soon becomes obvious that Neil is on a version of NEH that utilises Comsic Ice and Trick of Light as a cheap fast advance option that happens to allow you to play powerful ice. I start off playing as aggressively as I can and I’m able to snipe a lucky 3 points off the top of R&D, leaving me in a good position. He ices up his centrals and I proceed to pressure them as much as I can with a long term plan of busting R&D wide open with a Medium. At this point disaster strikes as Neil fast advances out a Chronos Project and removes just under half of my deck from the game. A quick check reveals that both of my Corroders were in my heap at the time, leaving me without access to a barrier breaker. My plan is to draw the one Parasite that I think I have left in my deck to deal with his Ice Wall so that I can keep hitting R&D and eventually score enough points to win. However, as I start to draw through my deck I realise my mistake: I lost all of my Parasites to the Chronos Project, not just 2 as originally thought. So at this point I’m just stone dead to Ice Wall, and probably can’t win the game. I almost concede but decide to carry on, hoping I can figure something out and get lucky since I’m pretty sure that Neil hasn’t realised my problem yet and he’s not going fast enough to just end the game. I do get a lucky break when Neil mistakenly assumes that it’s a Gate breaker that I’m missing and tries to score out a Project Beale behind a Quandry. I install one of my Decoders from my hand and steal the Beale. Given that he hasn’t rezzed any barriers on HQ yet my new plan is to keep hitting HQ in the hope of sniping the last 2 points for the win; I even have an Imp installed to help me achieve this. At one point he rezzes a Wraparound over HQ, but the extra text on it turns out to be a downside as I install a D4v1d and use it to get into HQ and few more times. Eventually I snipe an Astroscript from his hand for the win. This is one of the most ridiculous comebacks I’ve ever pulled in a game.

I forgot how I'm supposed to win this game

Round 4: Gary Bee: Chaos Theory and Foundry Fast Advance

As we sit down to play I commend Gary on his excellent tournament reports (that can be found here: https://oneclickshort.wordpress.com/) he already has his tournament report from this event here, in which he says some nice things about me and some nasty things about my deck. It’s better than the other way around at any rate.

Gary’s distaste for NEH is well documented so I’m happy to corp first and get it out of the way. He gets Magnum Opus out very early which means I know that I can’t just try and tax him out of the game. The advantage I have is that his economy is fairly click intensive, so I aim to just put out assets and upgrades that he’ll have to pay to trash whilst also advancing my own economy. He’s able to trash practically every SanSan I have but I manage to have one stay in play long enough to get the Astrotrain rolling, and from then on I just attempt to minimise his accesses whilst scoring out of the rest of my points.

Our next game was the slowest game of Netrunner I’d had all day. It’s lucky that we’re both fast players; if we hadn’t been I doubt we would have finished before the end of the round. I start off by playing aggressively, and Gary rezzes a Next Bronze over HQ. Given that his economy isn’t stellar I reason that there must be something in HQ worth protecting, and so I install a Yog and start hitting his hand to no avail. This was a mistake of course, given that he’s playing the Foundry he’s likely to rez ICE just so that he can fetch another piece to continue to buff up his defence. With my aggression plan not paying off I decide to just slow it down and plan for Medium digs instead. At one point I get an active Medium going and manage to score 2 points from it, but Gary battles over R&D, rezzes ICE to keep me out and then purges. Ichi is his MVP this game: strength 4 ICE is the toughest type for me to deal with, since I can’t use D4v1d and can’t use my Yog or Mimic unless I have Datasucker counters. The Foundry’s ability also ensures that even if I manage to Parasite something like an Ichi there will always be another one waiting. Gary is dedicating a lot of his resources to fighting me however and isn’t able to score that many points of his own. I make it to 4 points later when I check archives and discover a cheeky Efficiency Committee that I assume was ditched when I kept running HQ. I later make it to 6 when Gary hides an NAPD behind a Viper, probably not expecting me to go to the trouble of running to get a Datasucker counter and then busting through. The game goes on for a while after this but eventually I’m able to set up a rig and click through an Ichi over R&D to get Medium going again, and I see the last 2 points for the win. There were something like 12 cards left in Gary’s deck at the end of this game. At this point I’m sitting on 1 loss and what I assume is a decent strength of schedule going into the final round, so I’m pretty confident that I can make top 4. Even if I take 2 losses I may well make it in, and a split or two wins essentially guarantees it given that there’s now no one else left on 1 loss.

The number 4 has never caused me so much grief

Round 5: Wasyl Kurek with Chaos Theory Stealth and RP.

Wasyl was an inexperienced yet skilled player who was putting up a really good showing on the day. I also had no idea about the content of his decks; he was the only person I played against during the day for whom this was the case. I start off playing corp because Wasyl doesn’t have a preference and before long I realise that he’s on a Stealth build. Stealth vs NEH is interesting, my deck is well set up to put the game out of reach before the stealth suite is set up, but if I’m not quick enough they’re basically able to get into all of my servers forever without paying anything. Wasyl has some problems this game though; he’s not able to find an SMC or a gate breaker for my Quandrys, so I’m able to keep him out of my remotes and start scoring points. Near the end of the game he does get his Refractor and an R&D Interface, and he’s able to score 6 points off the top of my deck by running aggressively. However I’m able to reach 5 points with an Astro counter and on my next turn I show him the NAPD that I hid behind a Pop Up Window for the win.

I’ve played against RP a little with MaxX and I’m reasonably confident. The inclusion of Medium in my deck means that I can’t just be locked out like a Criminal given that I have a late game plan that’s as powerful as his. Wasyl leaves R&D open for a couple of turns, allowing me to get some early accesses in whilst also giving me a central to run. Because of this I’m able to Imp away his Mental Health Clinics and his Pad Campaigns. He goes for an early aggressive score behind one unrezzed piece of ICE when I have no breakers installed, and while I’m happy to let him have it I decide that I should at least make him fight for it. I install a Mimic, run R&D and then run the remote. He rezzes a Tsurugi and I pay through it with Mimic, accessing and scoring a Utopia Fragment, a huge boon since if it had gone to his side of the score area his scoring remote would have essentially been a write off for the rest of the game. At this point he ICEs R&D and prioritises denying me central accessing while getting money. I decide to slow down and plan to win the game by firing off a big Medium, Kati Jones ticking up every turn makes this plan a viable one. Eventually I’m able to install my breaker suite and, backed up by Medium and Kati Jones money I hit R&D. A Susanoo-No-Mikoto keeps me out for a while, but with the help of a Parasite and some Datasucker counters I’m able to get back into R&D, scoring an NAPD and winning a Future Perfect Psi Game for the win.

This card is Incubator with upside

Final result: 9-1 in Swiss

With this the Swiss portion is over and I know for a fact that I’ve top 4ed, and it also quickly becomes clear that I’m at the top of the Swiss after standings. I wasn’t expecting it to go quite this well and I’m pleased with my performance.After the 5 rounds the top 4 is made up of:

1: Alexander White (Me)2: Daniel Baxendale3: Donald Bowden4: Wasyl Kurek(Note: as is tradition 3 of the top 4 are from Birmingham)

Wasyl is one of the glut of 6-4s, and he makes it in off the back of his strength of schedule. Sadly Xenasis just missed out, coming 5th, in a mirror of what happened to the two of us in Worcester (he beat me 2-0 in Swiss and I came 5th.) Steve announces that the top 4 will begin in half an hour given that he wants to set up a camera to record the games, and give the 4 of us a bit of a rest. Don and I head out to get food. I’m hoping for a salad but can’t find one and have to settle for a Wispa Bar instead. I’m glad to have dodged Don in the Swiss rounds; he’s a proficient player with a very good record against me in tournaments. I’m also pretty sure that if I don’t want to lose the Championship I’m going to have to knock him out of Top 4 myself.

All of my games were being recorded by Steve and at some point they should end up on the internet. I’ll put the links in here and apologise in advance if I misremember what happens, if what I say contradicts the video evidence I’ll go back and edit my accounts.

Round 1 of Top 4 – Wasyl Kurek with Chaos Theory StealthI’m the higher seed and get to choose which side I play, and after some thought I decide to corp. Part of my reasoning is that I expect Don to win his game, and I’d rather run than corp against him. It helps a lot that I reckon that I have a better matchup against Wasyl’s runner deck than I do against his corp deck. We have a closer time this game than we did in Swiss as Wasyl sees more of his breaker suite and his Magum Opus early, and I get pretty agenda flooded in the early game. The funny thing about NEH is that it can sometimes turn this bad luck into a win. Of the multiple agendas that I drew, 2 were Astroscript Pilot Program. I try my best to keep his early accesses to a minimum while building up my econ, and eventually manage to rez a SanSan, score an Astro and then score another one. Pretty quickly I find the Breaking News and then the Project Beale that I need to put it away.

Round 2 of Top 4 – Donald Bowden with GRNDL

GRNDL Ultramodernism is a terrifying deck to play against. Don’s deck is set up to start pushing out agendas as quickly as possible, forcing the runner to make early runs for fear of Atlases with counters. His ICE suite is powerful and varied, with the intention being that you just won’t have the right tools for the job when it comes to getting into his scoring server, and even if you do get in by the skin of your teeth you may just die to Scorched. Games involving GRNDL are usually scary and skill testing, and I’m worried given how long it’s been since I played against it. I start off by sniping an early Hostile Takeover from his hand, a real boon given that this will hopefully deny an Archer rez and slow him down. As the game progresses I make as many runs as I can without installing a single clone chip or program; Don’s deck packs power shutdown and plenty of program trash ICE and I want to leave my installs as late as possible. Eventually he scores a Hostile Takeover of his own, which he then uses to rez an Archer in his scoring remote when I don’t have any programs installed. I feel pretty good about this given that it’s just a very fancy ETR ICE at this point, but I still do need a long term plan to get points. I let him have whatever the agenda was (Atlas I believe) and parasite the Archer, the hope being that it’ll be in Mimic range before he’s able to score another agenda. The game grinds out a little at this point, with me still low on agenda points. At one point Don plays a Power Shutdown to kill the Parasite that’s on the Arhcer. I decide to try to force the issue and install a Medium before running on R&D. I need to be careful when I do this given that he has 3 Snare in his deck, so I can only really make runs during my first couple of clicks. I think I score 2 points or so off this Medium before Don is able to rez a Grim and trash it, sending me back to square one. At some point I make the mistake that loses me the game: there’s a turn where I run on something, possibly HQ, and then decide to take some money and load up Kati. The issue here is that I’ve decked at this point and only have 3 cards in hand. Don has an Atlas with a counter on it and after doing some maths goes to fetch a Restructure, plays it, and then Sea Scorches me for the win. I should have just shuffled in with Levy AR Lab Access and not run that turn. To be honest I don’t remember the circumstances surrounding this, and hopefully the video will explain whether my actions were justified, and whether I was just being a gigantic idiot (I suspect the latter).

With this game going to Don he secures his place in the finals, and I play off against Dan in the loser’s bracket to determine who’ll be playing against Don.

Round 3 of Top 4 – Dan with Siphon MaxX

Despite this matchup being my only loss in the Swiss I’m pretty confident about it. I’m pretty sure that I should be able to utilise my Crisium Grids and Wraparounds to their full potential here to shut down Keyhole, and I’m going to be a lot more careful about Account Siphon. We both get off to a decent start and I see a good amount of my assets; I have some number of Pad Campaigns and a SanSan ready to go. Dan makes some early runs but isn’t seeing a whole lot of econ, limiting his aggression. At one point his money is particularly bad and he spends a turn taking a credit 3 times and then going down to 0 to play Liberated Accounts. I decide to bankrupt myself on my turn to rez a SanSan, score out a Breaking News with a click remaining and then trash his Liberated Accounts, leaving him at 0 with no on board econ. This slows him down more than me and I take advantage by scoring out some points. With a well-timed Day Job he’s able to get back in the game, but my R&D is ready at this point. I have a Wraparound in front of a Pop Up Window with a Crisium Grid upgrade, and with no corroder in his deck he’s going to have to really work to get Keyhole going. At one point he spends 3 clicks and a lot of money to Knifed the Wrapround with Eater (6 credits to break), jacks out, runs R&D normally trashing Crisium Grid (6 credits with Pop Up) and then Keyholes me. I have a Jackson on board and my 2nd Crisium in hand, so I’m not too worried. The game doesn’t last much longer – I advance out my last few points and proceed to the finals.

I knew that I brought you along for a reason

Going into these games I openly tell spectators that I believe this is Don’s to win – the prospect of winning two games, neither of which are in my favour is a tough one. However I do still feel good about both of my decks, and at the least I’m not going to go down without a fight.

Round 4 of Top 4 – Don with Gabe

Gabe is one of the best runners in the game against NEH. His ability allows him to get as many accesses as possible, whilst also funding more runs. In London Don played a similar deck with Silhouette as his ID and demolished me in Top 4 by using HQ Interface and Sneakdoor Beta. In this game things go a little better for me; I don’t see too many agendas early, a godsend against Gabe. On his first turn he decides to make a blind HQ run and I happily rez an Architect, allowing me to ICE up R&D and install a second Pad Campaign. This is huge for me, since essentially I got a 5 click first turn. Gabe can rarely afford to trash Pad Campaigns and I’m confident that they’ll be able to fund me for the rest of the game. Don picks up some points from R&D but I’m able to leverage my credit advantage by scoring out an Astro with a SanSan and forcing him to spend all of his money trashing it. With his momentum limited and mine in full swing I’m able to score out my remaining points, putting away the game.

It's fitting that this card was designed by the World Champion, given that it plays the game for you

Round 5 of Top 4 – Don with GRNDL

This is the grand final and I couldn’t have picked two better decks to make for a close one. MaxX’s ability allows you to see a ton of cards and forces a ton of interesting decisions, while GRNDL tests the skill of both players. This shows with the speed at which we take our turns: I’m forced to count my money and cards every time I decide to make a run, given the threat of Scorched, and Don counts his money and asks me how many cards I have at the start of each of his turns. This whole game Don leaves HQ open, knowing that I don’t have Siphon and confident that I don’t have Wanton Destruction. I keep running it anyway given the possibility that an agenda hides there for a turn or so. HQ accesses prove to be more of a hindrance than a help for me this game as I access 2 snares over the course of the game. Fortunately I do so with enough clicks left to draw up to 4 cards and shake the tag. MaxX’s ability is always incredible, but it really shines against Don’s deck by allowing me to keep up and see the cards I need. I hold breakers and Clone Chips in my hand, hoping that Don will assume I can’t get into his scoring server and put agendas there. This pays off and I’m able to take a Project Atlas and then a Cleaners out of his scoring remote, putting me to 5 points. Now I’m able to slow down a little, minimising my chances of Don pulling some program trashing or scorched nonsense and ending my game. We are so even on money this entire game, meaning that the other never has a chance to really pull ahead.

At one point I find and install a Liberated Accounts and the credit boost it gives me is huge. At some point I run out of cards in deck and play Levy AR Lab Access, and Don decides this is his chance. He Fast Tracks for an Atlas, installs a card in his scoring remote and advances it once. The only breakers I have in play are a Corroder and a D4v1d. However my Levy gave me a Mimic and a Déjà vu, so I’m just hoping to see a Decoder at this point. It’s worth taking a second to appreciate just how good MaxX’s ability is here – if I want to install Mimic and a Decoder and run his scoring remote, I only have 1 click spare. Most runners would have to hope that they draw their decoder with this click. But with the Déjà Vu in hand and MaxX’s ability I’m essentially given 4 chances: the MaxX draws, the 2 MaxX mills and then first click draw. Sure enough MaxX comes through and my Zu Keymaster is dropped into my heap from my deck. I Déjà vu is back, install it, install Mimic and make a run on his server. He asks to read Zu, checks his ICE and says “yeah I think you’ve got me”, before declaring no rez on his two unrezzed pieces of ICE. I break Ice Wall with Corroder and access the Project Atlas, sending me to 7 points and a Store Champs victory.

Now I have two of these effing things. At least I didn't need to win a coin flip or benefit from the kindness of strangers this time.

Cheers to Steve for running a great tournament, and to Wayland's Forge for hosting it. I'd also like to thank Andrew Hynes and Jay Glover for proof reading this report. I'll probably sit out the last few tournaments of the SC season, so I look forward to seeing everyone at Regionals/Nationals.

Good write up Alex, always good to read how a game went from the other side of the table. Tournaments are so grinding, you rarely get chance to sit down with someone and talk through what was going on in their head at certain points.

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